Governor Bobby Jindal has signed into law the Advanced Biofuel Industry Development Initiative, Act 382, the most comprehensive and far-reaching state legislation in the nation enacted to develop a statewide advanced biofuel industry. The legislature found that the proper development of an advanced biofuel industry in Louisiana requires implementation of the comprehensive “field-to-pump” strategy:

"Field-to-Pump" is a unique strategy created by Renergie, Inc. to locally produce and market advanced biofuel (“non-corn ethanol”) via a network of small advanced biofuel manufacturing facilities. The purpose of “field-to-pump” is to maximize rural development and job creation while minimizing feedstock supply risk and the burden on local water supplies.

"agricultural waste" is quite a misnomer. leftover biomass really must be returned to the fields in order to preserve (if not replenish) soil structure and fertility. though, all these biofuel projects rely on industrial agriculture methods, which are bound by non-renewable chemical inputs (ammonia, potash [fertilizer], petroleum [pesticides]), and thus make notions such as "agricultural waste" possible. the irony, of course, is that this is all in the name of clean, renewable fuel source and sustainability. all this r&d should really go into fixing agriculture, solutions to everything else will likely follow.

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Environmental Capital provides daily news and analysis of the shifting energy and environmental landscape. The Wall Street Journal’s Keith Johnson is the lead writer. Environmental Capital is led by Journal energy reporter Russell Gold, and includes contributions from other writers at the Journal, WSJ.com, and Dow Jones Newswires. Write us at environmentalcapital@wsj.com.